Shooting range proposal draws fire

Due to an outpouring of public opposition, a proposal to build a shooting complex at the Kevin J. Gahn Wildlife Refuge may fizzle out before it even reaches the launch pad.

Chris Lee, director of the Des Moines County Conservation Department, drafted a detailed proposal for a shooting complex, available online, costing upwards of $150,000, with a portion of the finances coming from grant funds.

The complex includes up to 10 trap shooting houses, shotgun and rifle ranges, an archery range, a 68-vehicle parking lot and a 2,400 square foot clubhouse, the cost of which was not included in initial estimates.

Des Moines County conservation finalized the acquisition of the 56-acre property adjacent to the secondary roads department and the county landfill in 1993. The area was turned into a wildlife refuge in memory of Kevin J. Gahn, who died in an automotive accident the previous year. As a member of the conservation board, Gahn was committed to wildlife management and conservation.

Residents upset

Local residents who live in the area surrounding the wildlife refuge are upset with Lee's proposal. A group of about six neighbors have banded together to object to the conversion of the wildlife refuge into a shooting range, which they are worried would produce intolerable levels of noise on a daily basis.

The group has been championed by Vickie Gahn, Kevin J. Gahn's wife, who said she thinks the idea of a shooting range runs counter to the purpose envisioned by her late husband.

"I know for a fact that Kevin would not have wanted this huge of a complex built here," Gahn said. "He might not have opposed a little trap shooting going on in here, but he would have wanted the land left as natural as it could be."

She also is concerned a shooting range limits the other potential public uses of the site.

"Conservation is supposed to preserve and save the land," Gahn said. "And they want to tear this whole place up and put up buildings and roads and parking lots?"

The public is limited in its use of the refuge. The site has hosted fishing clinics for youth in the past, has served as breeding grounds for swans, and the Des Moines County 4-H Club occasionally uses the property for trapshooting. But the scale of Lee's shooting complex proposal surpasses anything the Gahn family envisioned.

"My dad, he was all about shooting guns," said Gretchen Gahn, the daughter of Vickie and Kevin Gahn. "But to totally rip it all up, I just think that's against any conservation ethic."

Proposal defense

In his proposal, Lee argued a new shooting range complete with shotgun ranges would be beneficial for area schools, a few of which are creating trapshooting programs for their students. Lee said there is no room for expansion at the county's shooting range at Big Hollow, a range he said sees a lot of use.

County Sheriff Mike Johnstone drafted a letter in support of a shooting range at the Gahn wildlife refuge. Johnstone and his deputies sometimes reserve the shooting range at Big Hollow, which the sheriff said limits the public's use of the area.

"The two major things the current public ranges lack is a private setting for law enforcement to train out of the public's view and a classroom facility to have classroom lectures and safety briefings before moving onto the range to shoot," he said in his letter.

Vickie Gahn said she is not opposed to a shooting range, but she and a small group of local residents are united in their opposition to one being built in the wildlife refuge.

Having learned of objections, Lee has taken another look at the proposal.

"It's just a proposal," he said. "It's an idea we had for potential use of the site back there, it was never anything we were guaranteed to do. I was only going to go for it if there was public support. So far it's been almost unanimous opposition."

That being said, Lee was not expecting the public to react strongly against the plan, which he is in the early conceptual stages.

"There's virtually zero public access if it's maintained as a refuge," he said. "It's just hands off. And I just thought the public would like to have a bit more access to the property."

Public hearings set

Looking for input on the shooting complex proposal, the conservation department will hold two public hearings at Starr's Cave this weekend, one at 6 p.m. Friday, the other on at 3 p.m. Saturday. Vickie Gahn and the area neighbors plan to attend.

The outcome of the public hearings and the results of an online survey (www.dmcounty.com/polls.aspx) will be presented to the county conservation board in a followup meeting, at which time a decision will be made on whether or not to pursue the shooting complex idea.

Lee said he is interested in what other members of the public have to say on the issue, but the opinions of the Gahn family and the residents in the area surrounding the refuge likely will carry more weight in his eyes.

Still, he is not abandoning the idea and will continue looking for other places more suited to a shooting range.

"There's no question there is a demand for shotgun ranges in Des Moines County, but maybe that's not the place to do it," Lee said of the Gahn wildlife refuge.

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